Friday, May 3, 2013

The Eyes Have It

Here she is, in living color. Taken around 1890, this photo is unique among the many, many, family pictures that have been captured among my ancestors. It is the only color picture taken during this time period that seems to have survived.

Her name is Lillie Henderson, and she was the older step sister to my maternal great grandmother Ellen Dorcas Henderson. Not much is recorded of her life among the family records. Her mother's name is not even recorded, but her father was Abraham B. Henderson (nickname Sonny) who by a first marriage had two children. She is recorded to have died around the age of 16 years.

Red hair, blue eyes, and a determined look, fills the camera. There is a certain sadness about her... shoulders straight, hair perfectly combed, blue dress and a red bow that surrounds a high necked, laced collar. But it is the eyes that captured my heart.

Some say that the eyes are the windows of the soul. In this photograph of a long forgotten ancestor, the eyes have it.